For content creators who leverage the regulatory requirements of the GDPR to refine their customer data-gathering processes and create—or rebuild—trust that such data will be used only to the customer's benefit, the byproduct should be more satisfied, more trusting, and more engaged customers. And that's a worthy goal on either side of the Atlantic.

Mobile Content, Tablets, Apps

If you have been waiting with bated breath to see what Jeff Bezos would do with The Washington Post, it is time to exhale. Amazon announced an all-new WaPo tablet app, available immediately, exclusively for Amazon Fire tablet customers. Fire users will get unlimited free access to the app for six months--no subscription required.

Whether you make widgets or wine, sell consulting services or software, deep down inside of you, there's an author waiting to come out. Regardless of your writing skills or lack thereof, you and the business you represent have a story to tell-not a fairy­tale, thriller, romance, or science fiction adventure, but a nonfiction narrative that shares your unique knowledge and expertise with others who are hungry for it.

A new study from Expedia Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of Expedia, Inc., analyzes the importance of multiplatform devices in online travel content consumption and provides an in-depth look at device usage and trends, research and booking habits, and unique behaviors across audience segments.

Altova announced the commercial availability of MobileTogether, a new, cross-platform mobile development environment. Beta testers of the platform agree: MobileTogether finally makes it practical for businesses to connect to their back-end data and create enterprise mobile solutions for their workforce.

Google results vary widely on mobile devices- from as low as 20% to as high as 43% difference for individual search queries -- in comparison to identical searches via desktops and laptops, according to new research announced by Searchmetrics, a provider of enterprise search experience optimization platform.

In a new study from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, conducted in partnership with SAS, 61% of marketers surveyed reveal they have deployed some form of mobile engagement. Furthermore, 54% of respondents say the mobile channel has become critical to customer interaction, retention, and brand differentiation.

If you just can't get enough of making PowerPoint presentations, you will be excited to know that the full version of Microsoft Office has come to iPhones. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps have been available on iPad since earlier this year, but just came to iPhone last week.

The mobile payments industry has been plagued by false starts and unsubstantiated predictions. Back in 2008, Juniper Research projected the combined market for all types of mobile payments would reach more than $600 billion globally by 2013. However, by June 2013, Gartner, Inc. predicted the market to be around $235 billion, which was nowhere near the projection from 5 years earlier. Why haven't mobile payments seen the adoption rates predicted in years past?

A few days ago I was sitting in the drive-thru line at my local Starbucks impatiently awaiting my turn at the window. I needed a chai tea, and I needed it bad. Then I saw it. A woman reached out of her car, smartphone in hand, and waved it at the barista at the window who was wielding a scanner. This was a momentous occasion for me. It was the first time I'd seen someone actually use a mobile payment solution in person. I assumed this was all thanks to Apple Pay, but now I'm not so sure. Starbucks announced its quarterly earnings on October 30, and as it turns out, its mobile app is a star.

Digital Element, a provider of IP geolocation technology, announced the newest edition to its NetAcuity platform of products with the introduction of Pulse, a mobile-centric IP targeting solution. Pulse is the result of a new collaboration between Digital Element and Skyhook Wireless, a wireless positioning technology and location intelligence provider. The collaboration marries Digital Element's 15-plus years of IP location targeting experience with Skyhook's Context Accelerator Hyperlocal IP data to provide an offering that fills the mobile gap within the IP targeting space.

Appnext released its Self-Serve Advertising Platform with the aim of providing a transparent marketplace that operates on a Cost-Per-Install (CPI) bidding basis, allowing app advertisers to place direct CPI bids on specific publisher sources. The Appnext Self-Serve Platform enables advertisers to know where their apps are being promoted, and which publishers and app categories perform best, etc.

American Express announced the launch of its American Express Token Service, a suite of solutions designed to enable its card-issuing partners, processors, acquirers, and merchants to create a safer online and mobile payments environment for consumers. With American Express Token Service, traditional card account numbers are replaced with unique "tokens," which can then be used to complete payment transactions online, in a mobile app, or in-store with a mobile Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled device.

AddThis announced the results of its Q3 analysis of content engagement on the open web. Highlights from the quarter include insight into the rise of mobile web traffic and the most popular categories for consuming content on mobile devices. Additionally, AddThis has identified the quarter's top 10 services for sharing, the top 10 methods used for sharing content, and the top 10 categories for the most shared content.

If you were wondering when Microsoft would jump into the wearables game, you now have the answer to your question. The Microsoft Band goes on sale today, but is not exactly ground breaking. The company unveiled a basic fitness band, not unlike the FitBit or Jawbone Up. At $1199 it will work with all major ecosystems, and Microsoft also released a platform called Microsoft health to accompany it.

Readers can now visit Kindle Scout, Amazon's new reader-powered publishing program, to preview excerpts from unreleased books, help decide which will get published and receive free books. Rumors about this program have been circulating for weeks.

YouAppi specializes in data-driven mobile customer acquisition, and announced that is has raised a $3 million Series A funding round led by Glilot Capital Partners, 2B-Angels, and Flint Capital. The company also announced its mobile customer acquisition solution that aims to deliver higher customer lifetime value (LTV). This new SDK-free service conducts real-time multi variant analysis and delivers mobile app recommendations to drive customer acquisition for brands, marketers and agencies, and to maximize inventory monetization for over 1,100 publishers.

Progress Software Corporation announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Telerik AD, a provider of application development tools, for $262.5 million. Telerik enables its 1.4 million member developer community to create compelling user experiences across cloud, web, mobile, and desktop applications. Telerik's revenue for the last twelve months was over $60 million, with annual bookings growth of over 20%. Progress expects the addition of Telerik to be slightly accretive on a Non-GAAP basis in the first year following the acquisition.

Amazon announced that the new Kindle Voyage starts shipping today. Kindle Voyage features an all-new design, with Amazon's brightest, highest resolution, and highest contrast display, and reimagined page turns. Early Christmas shoppers can order it now for $199.

We've known about Apple Pay since early September, but the new mobile payment option debuted yesterday (October 20, 2014) with the iOS 8.1 update. People with the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus can now set up their accounts and starting waving their phones at checkout lines at retailers across the country.

One of the challenges inherent in presenting large quantities of content is the great disparity in how users like to consume it-not to the mention the expanding list of content types. While you may not be able to please all of your users all of the time, there are some rules and trends that can help you create navigable, engaging, and beautiful apps that help spread your content to the mobile masses.

Retale, a permission-based mobile and digital company connecting shoppers with retailers, and Placed, a provider of location insights and mobile ad intelligence, announced the results of a study examining shopping behaviors of more than 11,000 mobile users. The study by Retale and Placed probed a wide range of shopping behaviors to better understand the impact of retailers' ad circulars on purchasing decisions among mobile users.

Big brands have used mobile technologies in an effort to increase awareness, drive sales, and encourage customer retention for quite some time, but recent data shows that mobile adoption has seen a significant increase among small and medium businesses (SMBs) during the past year. In July 2014, Constant Contact released a new infographic based on a comparison of its 2013 "Mobile Pulse Survey" and its 2014 "Mobile Pulse Survey," which surveyed around 570 U.S.-based small business owners and nonprofits that the company refers to as its Small Biz Counsel. The infographic revealed that SMBs are finally hopping aboard the mobile bandwagon with an 11% jump in small businesses adopting mobile technology from 2013 to 2014.

A survey by Publishing Technology revealed an increasing number of people are now using their mobile phones to read ebooks. The survey of 3,000 consumers across the U.S. and U.K. found that 43% have read an ebook, or part of an ebook, on their handsets, and that 66% (59% U.K./ 72% U.S.) of mobile phone book readers currently read more on their phones than they did last year.

Data scientist and master storyteller are two of the U.K.'s "Hottest Jobs in Marketing," recently identified by Marketing Week. These two careers seem like polar opposites-one generating business insight through an extreme focus on data analytics and the other winning customers' attention through the creative engagement of emotions, interests, and desires. But they are both trying to make sense of a deluge of customer interactions, while translating the internet-enabled fire hose into memorable, meaningful experiences-one customer at a time.